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Fri, Mar

INEC Arraigns Professor Over 2019 Election Fraud In Akwa Ibom

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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Akwa Ibom State has arraigned one of two university lecturers, allegedly involved in electoral malpractice during the 2019 elections. The HOD, Voter Education and Publicity, Odaro Aisien confirmed the development, saying "The arraignment is a necessary step to stem the reign of impunity and bring sanity and probity to the electoral process in Nigeria."

The commission disclosed that the lecturer was exposed by the Information Trigger Tracking System of the Electoral Operation Support Centre (EOSC).

In a statement, Aisien said "In the course of preparations for the 2019 general election, the Commission had warned against acts capable of undermining the integrity of the electoral process.

"To fully underscore the seriousness of the warning, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (Mike Igini) met with stakeholders and repeatedly admonished election personnel at the various training centres, particularly academics, drawn from the university as collation/returning officers, to observe and maintain the highest ethical standards in the discharge of the sensitive duties assigned to them."

Explaining further the statement added that "two professors, who acted as collation/returning officers during the election, exhibited an uncanny bent to subvert the outcome of the election, contrary to the expressed will of the electorate.

"One of the lecturers altered already declared results at polling units and collated ward results in Form EC8B delivered to him by ward collation officers.

"He changed the outcome of the election by reducing the score of a leading candidate by a huge 5,000 votes and increasing the losing candidates’ score by the same margin without altering the overall total valid votes cast to avoid detection."

However, the second lecturer to be arraigned had said the election results were not collated by him "but by undisclosed individuals who only handed them him to announce."

Aisien noted that the lecturer "admitted to this fact in his own hand-written statement that he earlier signed even though he refused to come back to the Commission’s office for further debriefing to ascertain who delivered the prepared election results to him."

According to the HOD, the same lecturer has stood as a witness against INEC at the tribunal, defending "the same election results he did not collate but were given to him by an undisclosed person."

"Consequent upon the above, the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja, upon the request of the State Office, set up a panel of investigation to deal with all cases of electoral offences involving both ad hoc and permanent staff, some of whom have been dismissed based on the findings of the panel.

"Rather, he threatened legal action against the commission through a letter dated August 26, 2020. All efforts to reach him through the university authorities also failed as he appears to be on the run."

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